NYPD Pouts And Refuses To Do Their Duty; Residents Split Between Applauding And Failing To Notice

from the irrelevant dept

Mon, Jan 12th 2015 8:59am — Timothy Geigner

As you may be aware, things have gotten weird with the NYPD over the past several weeks. In what amounts to the police force in our nation's largest city throwing a temper tantrum over either the brutal murder of 2 officers or the sudden attention being paid to how police officers treat the city's minority residents in the wake of the stop and frisk scandals and the death of Eric Garner, the NYPD's numbers are all down. Arrests are down somewhere in the neighborhood of 50%, and citations appear to have plummeted to a fraction of the norm, resulting in arraignment numbers dropping by nearly a third. While the NYPD has denied that this is any kind of coordinated lack-of-effort, that claim is laughable and it's obvious that the police officers have banded together to show us how much New York City needs them and how horrible life will be when they stop performing the duties they swore to perform.

Too bad most people are barely noticing and that those who have noticed are thrilled.

Few managers in the court system expect the current downturn to last. Many public defenders, however, said they hope the steep decline in minor arrests will become permanent. They noted felonies did not rise over the last three weeks as arrests for low-level crimes plummeted.

"This proves to us is what we all knew as defenders: You can end broken-windows policing without ending public safety," said Justine M. Luongo, the deputy attorney-in-charge of criminal practice for the Legal Aid Society.

Those who have been arrested are getting better service from public defenders, while the courts themselves are free from the clutter of the massive arrests the police usually perform. You might be tempted to think that this means low-level criminals are getting away with their crimes. That might be true to some extent, though nobody seems to want to put forth any actual empirical data to support the claim, but what's plainly obvious thanks to the lack of clutter is how silly NYPD arrests can get.

Those arrested for relatively minor offenses now stand out. On Wednesday morning in Manhattan, William Talen, 64, who calls himself Reverend Billy, awaited arraignment. He had been arrested on Tuesday afternoon as he gave a sermon in Grand Central Terminal — protesting police brutality.

If the drop in arrests resulting from the NYPD refusing to do their jobs is made up of these kinds of arrests, good riddance. And it isn't just public defenders with more free time that appreciate the police taking a walk on their duty. The citizens are happy about it as well.

Charles Franklin, a 27-year-old student wearing a Shepard Fairey hat that reads “OBEY,” is also enjoying the latest trend in policing.“This is how it’s supposed to be,” he says, referring to the “quiet” he’s been sensing, the “lower volume” of cops he’s been seeing on local corners. “I’m not talking about guys getting away with nothing, I’m talking about feeling safe. The police driving up on us, because of some hearsay, and jumping out, that don’t make us feel safe. The police smelling every drink I drink, looking in my bag every time I come out the store, that don’t make me feel safe. This is how it’s supposed to be,” he reiterates. “We feel safe. And for once, we're not running late – usually we always be running late because of having been hassled.”

Those sentiments are accompanied by wry quotes affirming that some of the police force's biggest money-making habits, such as parking citations on the one block where they make lots of money are still going strong even as overall tickets are way down,

That said, the reaction to the police sitting on their hands and refusing to do their duty is pretty clear: shrugs and applause. As one person noted, it's somewhat revealing:

To many of us from these communities, the past two weeks have amounted to a vacation from fear, surveillance and punishment. Maybe this is what it feels like to not be prejudged and seen as suspicious law breakers. Maybe this is a small taste of what it feels like to be white.

If the NYPD was trying to teach the city's citizens a lesson, it appears to have taught one unintentionally: there are too many police on staff arresting too many people most of the time. Nice job, union bosses!

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Filed Under: broken windows, nypd, tickets, virtual work stoppage

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That One Guy (profile), 12 Jan 2015 @ 7:18am

Well, who would have ever thought that police acting like children would be a good thing for once. Hopefully their little tantrum lasts a long time, sounds like the city could use the break.
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- Ninja (profile), 12 Jan 2015 @ 8:19am
  
  Re:
  Hopefully their tantrum draw attention to the fact that law enforcement is a little too much on the 'overzealous' side. Take overzealous with a grain of irony.
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  - Anonymous Coward, 12 Jan 2015 @ 9:57am
    
    Re: Re:
    Not a chance... eventually something is going to happen to make the Mayor or the Police cave... someone will get the burn... we are just waiting to see which sucker drops the lighter in the puddle of gas they are standing in.
    
    And when its done... its like to get worst. Because we will either have a Police force now high and mighty on their chest thumping, or sore ass losers... and neither proposition when law enforcement is concerned is particularly appealing!
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  - PRMan, 12 Jan 2015 @ 3:27pm
    
    Re: Re:
    Well, obviously they have too many officers then. So DiBlasio should put on a hiring freeze immediately.
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- citizen, 13 Jan 2015 @ 9:09am
  
  Re: This shouldn't surprise anyone
  They have been acting like children all along. The school yard bullies in the 3rd grade. Only now they get to carry a gun and kill people.
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  - That One Guy (profile), 13 Jan 2015 @ 8:27pm
    
    Re: Re: This shouldn't surprise anyone
    Yes, but usually when they act like children, it's to the detriment of the citizenry, this time it's actually working in the public's favor.
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Anonymous Coward, 12 Jan 2015 @ 9:22am

I'd say the NYPD is demonstrating that it actually needs less officers on the job. In any other line of work, those that don't do their jobs don't have them for long. Sounds to me like the NYPD could stand some serious budget cutting to make up the lack of funds.
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Mark Harrill (profile), 12 Jan 2015 @ 9:29am

Other Law Enforcement Truth
Since this seems to be proving that the Broken Window theory of law enforcement may be incorrect, wonder what would happen if we stopped thinking that prisons were about deterrence?
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- Ninja (profile), 12 Jan 2015 @ 9:46am
  
  Re: Other Law Enforcement Truth
  That. Prisons should be about reeducating and reintroducing the person into society when possible.
  [ link to this | view in chronology ]
  - compgeek (profile), 12 Jan 2015 @ 9:51am
    
    Re: Re: Other Law Enforcement Truth
    unfortunately they are in reality treated like status symbols for the real criminals and wannabe toughs that go in. the big problem is that without any actual rehabilitation and reeducation... they tend to come out exactly how they went in. thuggish animals
    [ link to this | view in chronology ]
    - David, 12 Jan 2015 @ 2:09pm
      
      Re: Re: Re: Other Law Enforcement Truth
      Except that more of them come out that way than go in. And given the way in which the U.S. society damns for life, they probably have better chances of survival that way.
      
      Which is the U.S. variant of "rehabilitation and reeducation". Naturally, they can only teach their children how to survive under those conditions, and the class-based self-fulfilling prophesy continues.
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  - tqk (profile), 12 Jan 2015 @ 10:01am
    
    Re: Re: Other Law Enforcement Truth
    Prisons should be about reeducating and reintroducing the person into society when possible.
    
    Yeah, and they should be about locking away avowed predators from peaceful, law abiding individuals. I'm in favour of building "Coventry" on the north shore of Greenland. Just drop the perps off there and they can walk back to civilization.
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    - Anonymous Coward, 12 Jan 2015 @ 12:09pm
      
      Re: Re: Re: Other Law Enforcement Truth
      How do predators become predators?
      
      How do peaceful law abiding individuals become peaceful law abiding individuals?
      
      Let's attempt to answer these questions before we air drop the perps into Greenland shall we? I think you might be surprised how simple those answers might be.
      
      Corrupting an individual is easy. Dropping them off in Greenland or prison is easier still. Taking the first easy route hasn't stopped the influx of perps. Taking the second won't cure them. Given those repeat failures, maybe it's time we try something new?
      [ link to this | view in chronology ]
      - ltlw0lf (profile), 12 Jan 2015 @ 12:25pm
        
        Re: Re: Re: Re: Other Law Enforcement Truth
        Let's attempt to answer these questions before we air drop the perps into Greenland shall we?
        
        One of us has a dodgy sarcasm meter. I detect some pretty serious sarcasm in tqk's comment, but my meter may be broken.
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        tqk (profile), 12 Jan 2015 @ 1:34pm
        
        Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Other Law Enforcement Truth
        
        How do predators become predators?
        How do peaceful law abiding individuals become peaceful law abiding individuals?
        
        One of us has a dodgy sarcasm meter. I detect some pretty serious sarcasm in tqk's comment, but my meter may be broken.
        
        Actually, I think it's working fine. My Aristotle gene might be on overdrive, and that could be throwing it off. "Things as they could, and should, be." I'm a hopeless idealist.
        
        a1: Predators are either bred or taught to be predators, or not taught not to become predators in our (civilized homo sapiens) case. We're supposed to not be doing "law of the jungle" stuff in polite society.
        
        a2: Peaceful law abiding[*] individuals become "peaceful law abiding individuals" by not being predators. See a1.
        
        I'm just standing up for the weak here. They don't want to live in a battle zone, and they shouldn't have to. If their gov't is good for anything, it ought to at least ship the worst, most egregious, most recidivistic, least teachable offenders out, and the north coast of Greenland seems like a great place for them. It's really not all that difficult to act civilized, but if that's too tough for some, there's Greenland.
        
        [*] Sane laws in effect is an assumption on my part. I'd prefer to go on ethics and morality, but if all of you prefer codified law, I can do that instead.
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- Applesauce, 12 Jan 2015 @ 9:55am
  
  Re: Other Law Enforcement Truth
  Further evidence that laws and police have little or no impact on crime.
  
  1. Russell Brand, a former drug addict, now sober, pointed out that when he was an addict, all he cared about was getting his next fix. That is the focus of every addict. The legal status of their drug is 100% irrelevant to them, as are the consequences. If it was otherwise, they wouldn't be addicts. Lawmakers seem incapable of comprehending this obvious truth and keep passing more laws and arresting more people. This dynamic is probably not limited to drug laws.
  
  2. The twenty-year decline in violent crime nationwide correlates almost perfectly with the elimination of tetra-ethyl lead from the environment. Correlation is not always causation, but sometimes it is, and when the correlation is perfect, it is unlikely to be coincidental. This raises three new questions:
  2a. Were all those draconian laws passed and the beefed up police departments a waste of resources?
  2b. What other toxins currently in our environment are having a so-far undocumented affect on crime?
  2c. How many fewer police is the optimum number?
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  - Anonymous Coward, 12 Jan 2015 @ 12:38pm
    
    Re: Re: Other Law Enforcement Truth
    By your logic we could solve all problems by just having free Twinkes and Doritos on every corner and fill the air with the smoke of burning Marijuana.
    
    Everyone will be walking around getting the munchies, waving peach signs around talking to their fellow citizens in a slow slurred voice saying things like "Peace brother, do you know where I can find some Twinkes?"
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    - Dave (profile), 12 Jan 2015 @ 12:56pm
      
      Re: Re: Re: Other Law Enforcement Truth
      Would more peach signs mean fewer Apple logos everywhere?
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      - Anonymous Coward, 12 Jan 2015 @ 1:38pm
        
        Re: Re: Re: Re: Other Law Enforcement Truth
        Shuddup an gimme my Twinke!
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    - tqk (profile), 12 Jan 2015 @ 1:52pm
      
      Re: Re: Re: Other Law Enforcement Truth
      Compared to downtown Baghdad, it sounds like nirvanna.
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- wayout, 12 Jan 2015 @ 5:12pm
  
  Re: Other Law Enforcement Truth
  It's only been a couple of weeks, how about we see the long term effects before we start patting ourselves on the back
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- Anonymous Coward, 13 Jan 2015 @ 6:31am
  
  Re: Other Law Enforcement Truth
  I'm going to let you in on a little secret. Human beings aren't machines like your smartphone or your computer. You can't use one month of data to judge whether a given policy is good or bad. It took decades to change NYC from a cesspool to a place where you can live and work safely, and you'd need years to figure out whether any change in policing would have an effect one way or another.
  
  Here's a hypothetical to illustrate the point: everyone in the world stops emitting CO2 today; atmosopheric CO2 levels remain unchanged for the next month; QED, human activity has no effect on atmospheric CO2 levels, right?
  [ link to this | view in chronology ]
- Cal (profile), 13 Jan 2015 @ 9:54am
  
  Re: Other Law Enforcement Truth
  Prisons are mostly about having "slaves" do the work so that the corporations who own them make a larger profit. That is why there is a state guarantee that the prisons will be occupied by a certain HIGH percentage or the state will make up the loss in funds to the corporation.
  
  It is about $$, not anything else.
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Anonymous Coward, 12 Jan 2015 @ 9:42am

It's not going to last
See http://nypost.com/2015/01/11/no-time-off-for-nypd-until-cops-get-back-to-work/ for example. Because petty/arbitrary arrests and tickets are down, revenue is down...and THAT can't be tolerated.
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- Ninja (profile), 12 Jan 2015 @ 9:51am
  
  Re: It's not going to last
  And that's why all revenue from tickets should be redirected either into better services/infra or collective tax relief if there's nothing to invest on. PDs shouldn't be allowed to rely on ticket/seizure income.
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- ottermaton (profile), 12 Jan 2015 @ 9:53am
  
  Re: It's not going to last
  revenue is down...and THAT can't be tolerated.
  
  That is exactly, 100% correct.
  
  Our judicial system has very little to do with justice; it's mostly about bringing in enough revenue to support (and expand!) itself.
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- Anonymous Coward, 12 Jan 2015 @ 9:57am
  
  Re: It's not going to last
  Or it could just be the perfect excuse to cut the NYPDs budget - were I the mayor, that's exactly what I would propose, citing the stats of the last few weeks.
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  - Coyne Tibbets (profile), 12 Jan 2015 @ 10:13am
    
    Re: Re: It's not going to last
    Actually, the mayor could not only cut NYPD budget, but also pass an indefinite moratorium on issuance of tickets for some offenses.
    
    Suck the air out of the police sails by making their "strike" official policy.
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    - Anonymous Coward, 12 Jan 2015 @ 11:06am
      
      Re: Re: Re: It's not going to last
      That would be a good thing since the NYPD doesn't seem to understand that it works for citizens and their elected representatives.
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- Unanimous Cow Herd, 12 Jan 2015 @ 12:11pm
  
  Re: It's not going to last
  That should be a self solving problem.
  
  Quoting AC above:
  "I'd say the NYPD is demonstrating that it actually needs less officers on the job. In any other line of work, those that don't do their jobs don't have them for long. Sounds to me like the NYPD could stand some serious budget cutting to make up the lack of funds."
  [ link to this | view in chronology ]
Anonymous Coward, 12 Jan 2015 @ 9:59am

They aren't refusing to do their duty, they just forgot to put out the press release saying that in response to criticism, they would be cracking down on abusive arrests and other civil rights violations that were being committed by some police officers.
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DOlz (profile), 12 Jan 2015 @ 10:55am

Car 54 where are you?
There was an episode where the police commisioner when thru Toody and Muldoon’s patrol area and was appalled by the number of minor infractions. They were told to get their area cleaned up or else. They couldn’t bring themselves to write tickets for trivial stuff and were to be sent to patrol the docks. Before this could happen the police statistician pointed out that while their area was the worse in minor infractions there were almost no major crimes. It turned out the people in the nieghborhood worked with Toody and Muldoon to keep there neighborhood safe.

It seems that Nat Hiken knew back then what the police of today have forgotten, fear doesn’t breed respect, respect breeds respect.
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nasch (profile), 12 Jan 2015 @ 11:45am

Claim
While the NYPD has denied that this is any kind of coordinated lack-of-effort, that claim is laughable

The claim I heard is that things are now so dangerous for police that they have to travel in packs, so they're less efficient. I suspect this is just flat out false. I wonder if anyone is reporting large groups of police moving together where they were just traveling in pairs before. I don't think that was an official police spokesperson who said that but someone from one of the police booster groups.
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Uriel-238 (profile), 12 Jan 2015 @ 12:41pm

Many miles away...
But the sound wasn't sad! Why, this sound sounded merry!
It couldn't be so! But it WAS merry! VERY!
He stared down at Whoville! The Grinch popped his eyes!
Then he shook! What he saw was a shocking surprise!
Every Who down in Whoville, the tall and the small,
Was singing! Without any presents at all!
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- tqk (profile), 12 Jan 2015 @ 1:56pm
  
  Re: Many miles away...
  How apropos! Kudos.
  
  "Horton Hears A Who" is even better. Kindergarten cosmology!
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- monkyyy, 12 Jan 2015 @ 8:10pm
  
  Re: Many miles away...
  I don't think that story works here I highly doubt the police will grow a heart and stop kidnapping addicts
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  - Uriel-238 (profile), 13 Jan 2015 @ 11:42am
    
    That's a Christmas Miracle sort of thing.
    I think growing a heart only happens on Christmas.
    
    So...just bad timing.
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Anonymous Coward, 12 Jan 2015 @ 2:37pm

Hmmmm...Overtime...?
I don't know about NYC, but here in Texas, a lot of police end up getting paid overtime when they Appear in court. In part this occurs naturally, as lots of arrests are by night-shift police, and court hearings and trials are during the day. (Are there minimum sleep rules for police shifts?)

If the NYC police slowdown is cutting into police overtime pay, I just can't see it going for more than a few months.
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tqk (profile), 12 Jan 2015 @ 3:23pm

If the NYC police slowdown is cutting into police overtime pay, I just can't see it going for more than a few months.

And if it does, what's the downside? NY cuts its police budget by the amount the police slowdown's costing NY (in tickets not written), and NY ends up with the policing it needs without all these New Yorkers complaining about police presence overkill.

Who loses, but the PBA?
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Rob, 12 Jan 2015 @ 3:23pm

"reeducating and rehabilitating". Good luck with that. How do you reeducate a violent thug with a 4th grade reading level?
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- That One Guy (profile), 12 Jan 2015 @ 5:02pm
  
  Re:
  Provide him the means to educate himself, offer him training in productive, profitable, and legal skills, psychiatric evaluations and counseling if needed, drug rehab if needed, and workshops showing how much better their lives could be if they switched to legal livelyhoods.
  
  Will it work for all of them? No, but it will certainly work for more than the 'Just throw them in prison' method the US currently employs.
  [ link to this | view in chronology ]
  - nasch (profile), 13 Jan 2015 @ 7:57am
    
    Re: Re:
    You have to also make sure he can get a job when he gets out. It's way too difficult for convicted felons to get jobs, and it's kind of self reinforcing. The prisons train people to be criminals so nobody wants to hire ex-cons, so they have nothing to do but crime, and so on.
    [ link to this | view in chronology ]
    - tqk (profile), 13 Jan 2015 @ 11:35am
      
      Re: Re: Re:
      It's way too difficult for convicted felons to get jobs, and it's kind of self reinforcing.
      
      What twaddle. All they have to do is go to Wall St. They'll be with their kind of people.
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      - nasch (profile), 13 Jan 2015 @ 12:03pm
        
        Re: Re: Re: Re:
        What twaddle. All they have to do is go to Wall St. They'll be with their kind of people.
        
        No, those are the guys who commit multibillion dollar crimes and get no punishment. I said convicted felons. ;-)
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        John Fenderson (profile), 13 Jan 2015 @ 3:15pm
        
        Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:
        Well, except for the occasional sacrificial lamb that is required so they have an answer to the accusation that wall street criminals never go to prison.
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  - Anonymous Coward, 14 Jan 2015 @ 6:02am
    
    Re: Re:
    Education does not equal salvation. Just makes smarter criminals. If, that is, they even want to be educated.
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    - nasch (profile), 14 Jan 2015 @ 7:24am
      
      Re: Re: Re:
      Education does not equal salvation.
      
      That sounds like a perfect solution fallacy.
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- Uriel-238 (profile), 14 Jan 2015 @ 1:00pm
  
  Most convicts are not "Thugs."
  The DoJ is heavily weighted towards conviction and incarceration even when evidence is in start contradiction to police testimony: three lying police officers on the stand cannot be wrong.
  
  It's hard to say, but it is possible that the number of innocents incarcerated in the United States could likely outnumber the number of guilty. Most of them are jailed for minor crimes at any rate (e.g. marijuana possession).
  
  And the corrections system we have is actually counterproductive towards reintegration. Long term incarceration tends to make one thuggier, not better prepared for society. It's hard to do anything towards improving our corrections system and it not be a step forward.
  
  Also, remember that the United States has the greatest number of prisoners per capita in the world at 716 per 100,000. No, wait, the Archipelago of Seychelles may have temporarily beat us out. But our incarceration rate is nonetheless ridiculous. We have 5% of the population and 25% of the prisoners.
  
  And at this point they're all political prisoners.
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  - nasch (profile), 14 Jan 2015 @ 2:34pm
    
    Re: Most convicts are not "Thugs."
    Most of them are jailed for minor crimes at any rate (e.g. marijuana possession).
    
    I just heard that about 45% of the drug offenders in US prisons are there for possession of marijuana. Also:
    
    "The United States leads the world in the number of people incarcerated in federal and state correctional facilities. There are currently more than 2 million people in American prisons or jails. Approximately one-quarter of those people held in U.S. prisons or jails have been convicted of a drug offense. The United States incarcerates more people for drug offenses than any other country. With an estimated 6.8 million Americans struggling with drug abuse or dependence, the growth of the prison population continues to be driven largely by incarceration for drug offenses."
    Source:
    Justice Policy Institute, "Substance Abuse Treatment and Public Safety," (Washington, DC: January 2008), p. 1.
    http://www.justicepolicy.org/images/upload/08_01_REP_DrugTx_AC-PS.pdf
    
    It's hard to do anything towards improving our corrections system and it not be a step forward.
    
    By definition. ;-)
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Anonymous Coward, 12 Jan 2015 @ 7:36pm

Good for the citizens of New York! It sounds like they needed a vacation from harassment and choke hold related deaths.
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Anonymous Coward, 13 Jan 2015 @ 2:59am

I liked the piece the Daily Show delievered last week.
Jason Jones on scene in NY and declaring it lawless.

Somewhat eye opening to see a hidden camera part where he orders some weed on his phone and gets it and trying to sell it again, just 5 feet from an NYPD officer standing around looking like he is performing his job, standing in one place and pretending to look around.
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me, 13 Jan 2015 @ 4:10am

It would be nice
If the takeaway for them (NYPD) is that they should honor their oath and stop trying to act the role of everyone's personal Drill Sargent, but what we are seeing, is those in blue are more about inimidation and revenue collection than they are about keeping any peace.
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- Uriel-238 (profile), 13 Jan 2015 @ 10:56am
  
  It would be nicer...
  If we as a people recognize that keeping the peace and saving lives is what we want from a police force, and change the system to create that, instead of the protection racket that we got.
  [ link to this | view in chronology ]
  - tqk (profile), 13 Jan 2015 @ 11:39am
    
    Re: It would be nicer...
    I think The Drug War is in the way of that happening. If we could cure our governments of that addiction, the militarization of the police wouldn't be happening.
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Anonymous Coward, 14 Jan 2015 @ 5:56am

This is what freedom feels like
To many of us from these communities, the past two weeks have amounted to a vacation from fear, surveillance and punishment.

It is too bad we don't remember that feeling. Maybe as frogs, we should have jumped out of the pot before it started boiling?
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- John Fenderson (profile), 14 Jan 2015 @ 9:25am
  
  Re: This is what freedom feels like
  "Maybe as frogs, we should have jumped out of the pot before it started boiling?"
  
  Did you know that the story about boiling frogs is a myth? If you put a frog in water and slowly increase the heat until the water is boiling, the frog will jump out well before the water is too hot.
  
  So, in other words, frogs are smarter than many people in this regard.
  [ link to this | view in chronology ]
  - Anonymous Coward, 14 Jan 2015 @ 10:14am
    
    Re: Re: This is what freedom feels like
    Yea, I know it is a myth, but as you state, it does apply to people.
    [ link to this | view in chronology ]
    - Uriel-238 (profile), 14 Jan 2015 @ 12:43pm
      
      Frogs and pots.
      Actually Wikipedia notes the experience of zoologists is that it's hard to keep the frog in the pot while the water is cool.
      
      But your point is valid. Bread and circuses will keep the people placated until everybody has been personally affected or knows someone unfairly affected by the police state.
      
      We're approaching that level now.
      
      We're not frogs in puddles. Human beings are an incredibly lawful, authority-respecting species and are willing to suffer a fuckton of shit if we believe doing so is in the service of the community as a whole.
      
      So yeah, there's a lot of static inertia to overcome to achieve general resistance to authority.
      [ link to this | view in chronology ]
      - tqk (profile), 14 Jan 2015 @ 12:58pm
        
        Re: Frogs and pots.
        Human beings are an incredibly lawful, authority-respecting species and are willing to suffer a fuckton of shit if we believe doing so is in the service of the community as a whole.
        
        Huh. I always thought that was a Canadian thing. But you're right. That was just me being chauvenistic. Thanks.
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